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| Necessary Roughness Book 2 |
Desmond
I was sixteen years old when I met Oakley Manning during a family beach vacation. He was funny, gorgeous, as obsessed with football as I was, and hurting after his mom abandoned him.
For two weeks, we were inseparable. Oakley made me feel complete, settling something inside me.
Then one night, I kissed him…and he kissed me back.
When he walked away afterward, I pretended it hurt less than it did. It’s a lesson that’s stuck with me—the people I want never choose me back.
Oakley
Everything about what I shared with Desmond Jackson was perfect.
Then, on the last morning of our trip, my ex-girlfriend-slash-best friend dropped a bomb: “I’m pregnant.” For the sake of the baby, we decided to make it work.
Eleven years later, Serena and I are still best friends, but our relationship is over, though we haven’t told anyone. Between her mom’s recent diagnosis and our daughter, we aren’t ready for more complications.
Enter Des, recently traded to L.A.’s second pro football team—my team being the first. Now he’s always in my periphery, infuriating and needling me…and still capable of making my pulse race. Our chemistry is as combustive as ever. Des worships my body in ways I’ve never experienced, but he doesn’t believe in forever, and I can’t do casual.
We compete at everything, but he doesn’t know he’s already won my heart. I just hope it’s a prize he wants…and that my world won’t implode if I have him.
The Lockdown Mann is a second-chance romance between two professional football players, with a complicated history and an even more complicated present. Expect banter, anonymous online messaging, and heart. There is no cheating in this book.
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My Review: 4/5 Stars
When they were sixteen, Desmond and Oakley met at a time where Desmond needed a friend most. They spent weeks together in the summer, hanging out and not realizing it, falling for one another. And after Desmond gets the courage to kiss Oakley, everything crashes the next morning. Because turns out Oakley’s best friend and ex-girlfriend is pregnant. And he won’t abandon her and their child. So he breaks both their hearts and walks away. Years later, they’ve made a name for themselves when it comes to football. But for Oakley, he is currently almost a year into a separation with Serena. They tried for years to make their relationship work but both knew deep down they were only meant to be best friends. And that is what they are. But telling her parents, especially her mom who is sick, and their daughter is a little trickier than they planned. And then Desmond is traded to one of the LA teams. Soon Oakley is seeing him everywhere, and though they’ve seen one another during their NFL career, they’ve never talked about their past. But when feelings start stirring, it’s hard to ignore what could have been. For Desmond, he tried hard to push away the pain Oakley left him. But it doesn’t help that it wasn’t the last time someone left him. He’s kept so much of it in. And being around Oakley again, threatens to break his heart once more. Especially when they start hooking up. He keeps telling himself it’s just sex, nothing else. Because if he doesn’t protect his heart, who will? Oh these two! I wanted to shake them and tell them to be honest with one another but at the same time, their situation was definitely complicated. Poor guys have gone through a lot. But they deserved this second chance with one another. The universe has pushed them together more than once and they finally need to accept that they were always meant to be part of one another’s lives. I loved watching them get that second chance and falling hard for one another as adults. Another great book in this series! And looks like we got a small peek of what could be the next book.
I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
